Quote:
Originally Posted by
ForestAquarist http:///t/392891/blue-hippo-tang-needs-help-lymphocystis-or-ich#post_3491685
Hi Flower, thx. for your feedback.
I know all you said...Unfortunately I can't do this (again). Last time, I did similar with Beth's suggestion. I was in lack of budget/equipments. Finally, I did hypo in the MT with all inverts/rocks removed (inverts went to a 5-gallon tank, rocks went to a big rubber can).
I know blue hippo tang easily got ich/lympo. My strategy now is:
- frequent water change (may be 15 gallons per 5-day)
- net the hippo and do copper in a separate tank for a short period of time (my QT is not set up yet), if needed.
- improve the water quality (refugium)
- feed the fish well (I use sea weed, lactice, frozen brine shrimp and pellets).
I only have 6 fishes in my tank. The hippo and one yellow tank are new. Others are survivors from the last ich burst out. So far, the hippo is the only one having the problem. I prefer to let all the fishes to fight within the current environment. I know most of them will survive. If I take them out and put them in another environment, some won't make it. I will just let the hippo pass if she can't make it. If I apply coppy to her and ich comes back to her again, I will then apply coppy again. See how many times she can stand...
Also still wonder whether it is ich or lympo. I think the tank is cleared with ich already. The source could be the hippo itself. I am lazy and run the risk of not treating this new comer with any means before putting it to the tank.
Can ich be developed within the system instead of from the outside?
I got this hippo at very good price. It is around 4 inches long for only $40, from a LFS that I have good relationship with. I went back to see other unsold hippo in the same tank. They all do well without problem.
As soon as you put the tang back in...it will get sick again. The constant treatments will eventually kill it anyway, also once you add the still stressed tang, it will be re-infected...by shear numbers it may do in the other healthy fish.
I can tell you what I did years ago when I was in your situation. I left all my fish in the tank, and if they made it they made it....I feed them fresh garlic juice on thier food to help build up their immunity. I got a couple of cleaner shrimp that actually clean and eat the ich spots off the fish. I did not add any new fish. My goal was to just keep what I had healthy.
Fast forward a year...none of my fish died. I hadn't seen any ich for months. I dared not add another fish but at least all was well. I did add corals and inverts over that time. Well there came a day that I had to move...talk about total stress on my fish. All I lost in the move was one claener shrimp. To my amazement...no ich outbreak. I got brave and added a new fish...no ich.
I guess the fish stayed so healthy the ich couldn't breed and what managed to was eaten by the cleaners shrimps. So after a year and six months...my tank was finally ich free. A QT would have worked much better and faster, but my fish were so large I didn't have a QT that could hold all my fish for 8 weeks. A QT to start with would have prevented it all. I have to tell you, it was a sad thing to not be able to add a single fish to my tank in all that time....but it worked.
P.S.
1. Frozen mysis not brine.
2. Believe it or not water changes are stressful too, my tang broke out in ich with every water change, and it would start all over...hold off and only do what you have to... once a month. Ich is a parasite that attacks stressed fish, not a water quality issue.
3. No pellets...try dried Nori sheets or other brand of seaweed
4. Macroalgae in a refugium will do wonders for water quality.
